creative. barely.

Monthly Archives: July 2012

In college at Western Washington University I was an Instructor’s Assistant (IA) for the Communications 101 class. The class was about learning to speak in public. Think Toastmasters but for college kids. I taught the class with a parter for one quarter, then solo for two quarters. After that, I taught the IA’s how to be IA’s. I loved the experience, and as a result, I learned to truly love public speaking.

Since then, I’ve spoken publicly as often as I can. Thankfully, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to present and speak publicly during my career.

OBO does not mean what I think you think it means (shameless Princess Bride steal). For it to be a true OBO, it has to be the best offer for me. Not necessarily for you. Good OBOs are often mutually beneficial, but they certainly aren’t going to benefit the buyer more than the seller. Sellers are looking to sell, not giveaway.

I’m convinced that most people on CraigsList have no idea what OBO really means. No, it is not you offering me your junk for my used car. Nor does it mean I’ll consider trades for your old PC, (mostly worthless) “rare” coins, stamp collection, or your run down car. I’m trying to sell my run down car, why would I want yours? Obviously, the simple solution is to just remove OBO from future postings. But I’d rather come up with some rules for responding to an OBO.

There are people out there that just plain stink at being in charge. They have business schizophrenia, always running from one idea to the next without ever giving any one idea a chance to develop. They don’t respond to emails, and if they do, they only respond to part. When they delegate, they give way too much and then expect it done in an unrealistic timeline. They put out fires and never learn to anticipate problems before they happen. That’s not the issue though. Having a bad boss, or bad management team is going to happen. The issue is how do you identify if that person is you? What are the tell-tale signs that you’re bad at being in charge?

Here’s a short list to identify if you’re bad at being in charge:

1: It’s always someone else’s fault.
2: Your company is always putting out fires. There’s no preventative measures to anticipate or manage complications.
3: Heavy turnover.
4: Dwindling sales.
5: No one returns your calls.Being in charge should be synonymous with being critical of one’s self. If you aren’t very good at being critical of yourself, maybe you aren’t good at being in charge.